I thought… what the? I’ve been surrounded by coyotes, more than once. Really surrounded. I thought it was cool. Maybe I’m the one who’s nuts? Being surrounded by a herd of javelina and being face-to-face with a young mountain lion – those situations were a little more dicey. But my personal worst scare was when I came head to head with two very large Brahman bulls on open rangeland in Mexico. I gave them a wide berth, slowly. They were waaaay bigger than me.

Regardless, I was reminded of when I was surrounded by coyotes. I was surrounded on one occasion for the same reason many people are “surrounded”, because I had food. I was in college, and was working on a biological survey of wild rodent populations in the deserts of southern Arizona. I normally worked with with a biology graduate student, but I was alone this dark night. Almost 200 traps were set out (the mice were caught alive, we recorded their vital statistics, then let them go). Unfortunately for the mice, the weather was unseasonably cool. I began to check the traps at 11pm, and many of the trapped mice were in a state of torpor (a hibernation-like state to conserve energy). What to do?

Not to worry. This has happened before. When I came upon a torpid mouse, I put him or her in one of my pockets until he or she warmed up and started to wiggle around. Quite amusing. I wonder if it was the mouse equivalent of waking up and having a “Where am I? I don’t remember drinking that much” feeling. When the mice were re-animated enough, I took them back near where I picked them up and let them go.

Enter the coyotes. I heard coyotes barking earlier in the night; quite common and I thought nothing of it. But after about a half hour into my two plus hour check, I noticed that I keep hearing noises just beyond the range of my headlamp. I became a bit more vigilant. There were creatures out there that could do me in quite easily. Eventually, I began to catch glimpses of coyotes flashing by in the darkness; one, two, or was that three? They were running circles around me. I was literally surrounded!

Coyotes, not a mountain lion, I was okay, I said to myself. I’m not sure what happened, but all of a sudden it dawned on me why I was so popular with the coyotes on this night. Seeing coyotes was not a big deal, but having them stick aournd was a bit unusual. The reason they followed me – I was setting down mice that were fairly easy targets in their less-than-alert states. I was potentially serving dinner to the coyotes. Duh.

So I started keeping the mice in my pockets a little longer to make sure they were fully awake. Some became quite fiesty, epecially when there was more than one mouse in a pocket! Then I placed them near a hole or under thick brush. I felt sorry for them, but I also did not want to lose any future data. Desert mice can live quite long lives, in mouse years. I didn’t want to lose one to a coyote. My “two hour” check lasted almost until dawn. The coyotes stayed with me until the first hint of sunlight. It was quite an interesting experience; a big dog-and-mouse game.

So I was surrounded by coyotes, but I didn’t make the headlines. Sigh.

Post navigation

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Search for:

Current Happenings —————————–

Upcoming Classes

Both classes are taught through Portland Community College Community Education

October 2018 — Watercolor Sketching: Postcards from My Travels

The class is wrapping up. Watch for more classes in the future. For a description and more information, please visit the class website: https://www.pcc.edu/staff/michael-liebhaber/

February 2019 — Think Like an Artist

Starting or rejoining your creative journey? Demonstrations and activities designed to up your creative game. We will use drawing, painting, and collage to learn about design, color, rendering, and the critical habits that artists use to develop their ideas. Drawing skill is not necessary.
Class website and PCC enrollment will be available as the class date approaches.

Current Exhibition:

“Painting to Save the Trees”

Elisabeth Jones Art Center

516 NW 14th Ave, Portland,OR

Through August

A series of watercolors from the Tree Emergency Response Team project – “Our job is to help trees to be loved and noticed by the community.”

Environmental Projects————————————–

Trees for Sale

I informally “adopt” trees that are growing on land that is for sale. My goal is to record the existence of the trees before they are replaced by progress. The first trees I’ve adopted are a group of old Oak and Douglas Fir trees that sit on land that is for sale near the Scappoose Airport. Some are very old.